2010 Guest Speaker

General Walter Natynczyk is from Winnipeg. He joined the Canadian Forces in 1975 after spending five years as an Air Cadet. He has held regimental command positions from tank troop leader to commanding officer of the Royal Canadian Dragoons.

His operational experience includes four years NATO duty in Germany; six months of UN peacekeeping duties in Cyprus; a one-year-long mission with the United Nations in the Former Yugoslavia as Sector South-West Chief of Operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina with British forces, then as the Chief of Land Operations, UNPROFOR HQ in Zagreb, Croatia. He commanded the RCDs in domestic operations during the Winnipeg flood of 1997 as well as in the Ottawa region during the 1998 Ice Storm. He served as the Canadian Contingent Commander in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1998. He was the third Canadian to serve as Deputy Commanding General, III Corps and Fort Hood, Texas and deployed with them to Baghdad, Iraq in 2004. Upon his return to Canada, he commanded the Land Force Doctrine and Training System and then was appointed Chief of Transformation.

His staff appointments include Squadron Commander at Royal Military College, Army Headquarters staff in St. Hubert and in Ottawa as Assistant Director to the National Defence Headquarters Secretariat, 13 Plans and Operations during the period of CF deployments to Kosovo, Bosnia, East Timor and Ethiopia-Eritrea, and most recently as the Vice Chief of the Defence Staff. General Natynczyk was promoted to his present rank and appointed the Chief of Defence Staff on July 2, 2008.

He has a Business Administration Degree from Royal Roads Military College and Collège militaire royal and is a graduate of the Canadian Forces Command and Staff College, the U.K. All Arms Tactics Course and the U. S. Army War College.

He enjoys jogging and sailing. He and his wife, Leslie, have three children, Margaret, William and John, who serve in the Navy, Air Force and Army respectively.